My Thoughts on the Herod Family Tree and Its History of Inbreeding

The Christmas narrative is somehow never complete without Herod the Great's plan to murder the baby Jesus. Take note though that it was already more than a year and Herod the Great's order was to kill all the infant boys two years and below. Somehow, the Herods really do are a dysfunctional family. Just researching the history of the Herods will reveal a lot of sexual sin possible. If you do some research on the family tree of Herod - you'll find out that they're a seriously inbred bunch. You may find out that inbreeding was very common among the Herods.

Why was inbreeding practiced? People back then were more focused on keeping the family wealth intact and the bloodline supposedly "pure". So marrying outside one's family was probably not in their best interest. However, Herod Antipas was previously married to Phaeselis a daughter of Aretas IV of Arabia before he cohabited with his half-niece and sister-in-law, Herodias. It should be noted that the parents of Herodias (Aristobulus and Berenice) were also first cousins. Herodias was also the sister of Herod Agrippa who was devoured by worms for declaring himself a god. Herodias was previously married to her paternal half-uncle Herod Philip and even sired Salome. Salome would later marry her uncle and granduncle Philip II (but was childless with him) and later married an unidentified cousin of hers resulting in more freak children.

A study of genetics would tell you why the Herods (and many other royal families) fell apart. Have you ever tried to study the fall of the dynasties of Egypt or the infamous Hapsburgs? Charles II of Spain lived from a very long line of inbreeding, his parents were uncle and niece, and he was a very sickly, I heard he was even infertile, and that he didn't last long. Many pharaohs of Egypt such as Tutankhamen had a lot of defects. Tutankhamen from what I heard had walking problems. I wonder if Salome herself was retarded since her grandparents were first cousins and her parents are half-uncle and half-niece. Herodias wasn't already quite right either and the inbreeding coefficient would've skyrocketed already when she had Salome with her half-uncle, Herod Philip. It also becomes quite disgusting when Herod Antipas decided to elope with his half-niece Herodias and divorce his wife Phaeselis. It just becomes a total disaster when you consider the family tree of the Herods.

I wonder if ignorance of genetics was really involved aside from the desire to keep the bloodline "pure" and the family wealth intact. The custom of incestuous marriage was also very much done by the Greeks and the Romans. The gods of Greece and Rome were also incestuous. It was very infamous to have a tangled family tree in the Greek or Roman pantheon. A good example is also how Zeus infamously slept with Io from whom they had their great-grandson Danaeus, Poseidon a brother or Zeus mated with Lybia a granddaughter of Zeus from Io, Danae would be Zeus' descendant by eight generations later yet he slept with her and sired Perseus, and later Perseus' granddaughter Alcmene (Zeus' descendant by 11 generations) would later sire Heracles (Hercules). You can imagine just how immoral the gods of the Greeks and the Romans are in contrast to the holy and sinless God of the Bible. The gods of paganism are just as human as we are which made works salvation the viewpoint of the pagans. The real God of the Bible is pure and perfect making man's effort to reach salvation worthless.

Leviticus 11 was given was to safeguard the genetic pool of Israel. Back in Genesis, inbreeding was still okay because there were no other people yet compared to when Leviticus 11 was given. Adam and Eve were the only two people so their children would naturally marry each other. Cain would marry one of his many sisters. Seth would marry one of his sisters. Later, Noah's family was told to repopulate the Earth so it was only acceptable (at that time) for Abraham to marry his half-sister Sarah. Isaac was soon married to Nahor's granddaughter Rebekah. Nahor was also married to his niece Milcah which was still permissible. However, the gene pool started to finally deteriorate as a result of the post-Flood world that inbreeding was no longer ideal. Incest had its serious consequences so the rule against incest was given. Yet, so many did it regardless out of whatever superstitions they had while God already gave Israel an advanced genetics lesson. The Israelites were told that inbreeding was no longer permissible as part of God's protection plan. It also set them apart from the pagans who continued to inbreed in spite of seeing the consequences of their offspring being freaks. Sadly, the Herods didn't take heed to it and continued the practice until their family dynasty fell apart.